I am boring, which is awesome…

Saturday, Penny had her first of three injections* for her heartworm treatment. For the last two months we have been attempting to train both dogs and ourselves for the eventual 12 weeks of restricted activity, which means that we’ve been carrying Penny up/down the stairs and teaching Duke to stay out from underfoot, while following along, for the times when I would be walking both dogs by myself when my husband is out of town. They have been doing splendidly and I have gained some arm muscles. I still get a bit winded going up the stairs as Penny is now 40lbs and we live on the third floor, but the dogs have learned that at the top I need to catch my breath before going to our door. I’ve also been trying to suss out when the optimal time is to walk for the least distractions, because both dogs get really excited to meet other dogs and people. Penny follows me around the house when I get up, even to the bathroom, so I’ve been trying to be super boring so that she’ll just rest. She’s starting to realize that everything I do is not something to be investigated.

As much as we’ve been trying to prepare, I still wasn’t prepared for the amount of pain Penny would be in… the injection is in the muscle of her back. She would lay for a few minutes then start pacing and panting, all the while crying a little bit, grunting and moaning. I knew she was in pain, and I felt helpless. She finally stopped pacing and took a nap about 6 hours after the injection. She wouldn’t take treats, drink or eat for nearly 12 hours. But once she napped and ate, she seemed in better spirits. The next morning she was hungry and almost back to normal. I’ve been only walking her a very short distance to “do her business”, while my husband takes Duke a bit further, but Duke always wants to come back to Penny and not go too far. We pretty much spent Sunday watching TV trying to be as boring as we could. 😛

Sunday: Penny & Duke

Sunday: Penny is not amused

Today I took some photos of the pups wandering around the house getting their nap on…

Penny

Penny

Duke

Penny

Duke

Penny

Once Penny finally fell asleep Saturday afternoon, I worked on this zentangle…